Andreas Platthaus

The 200th anniversary of the battle of Leipzig could have been an excellent moment to update the 19th century accounts produced by the Prussian and Austrian armies. Among the few titles that have appeared in German, „1813: Die Völkerschlacht und das Ende der alten Welt“ is probably the best that we can expect given the sad state and esteem of German military history. The book simply reprints two 19th century maps which were even then not state of the art in cartography. In order to justify to write about the battle, the author interrupts the events of the four days, which are given a chapter each, with vignette chapters about the German publisher Brockhaus (who printed the official accounts as a sort of topical newspaper and later produced the German equivalent of the Encyclopedia Britannica), Goethe and Napoleon as well as the sideshow of the British Congreve rocket unit present at the battle. As the events of each day have to be contained in one chapter, the battle is presented in a big picture survey, perhaps because more detail would vex the reading public. Overall, it is not a bad read but certainly not a work for the ages.… (mehr)